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Psalms for the Summer: Let Your Face Shine, that We May be Saved! Psalm 80

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  1. Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

  2. a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

  3. It's our hope that these sermons will draw you

  4. more into the life of following God, Father,

  5. Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and

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  9. Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

  10. sermon. God bless. 80, but I just want to say

  11. I love the sound of the kids in our church. I

  12. felt like they were saying amen earlier when

  13. we were singing. And Psalm 8 came to my mind,

  14. verse 2, out of the mouths of babies and infants,

  15. you've established strength because of your foes.

  16. That there's something lovely in the sound of

  17. the little ones among us. Praise the Lord for

  18. them. Let me pray. Lord God, we're thankful for

  19. Your Word, even these passages that are lesser

  20. known. and these stories that may be lesser known.

  21. And God, I pray that we would receive it as Your

  22. Word and Your gift to us, or You give us Your

  23. Word because You desire to reveal Yourself to

  24. us, and that we might find life and life in You,

  25. the life that we long for, the life that we desire.

  26. And so Lord, I pray that our ears should be open,

  27. not just to my words, but to Your words. Their

  28. hearts would... be softened to you, and that

  29. we would be desirous having spent this time with

  30. you to live our life with you in faith and belief

  31. and trust and love. And we pray all this for

  32. our good, Lord, but mostly for your glory, for

  33. the glory of your holy name. In Jesus' name we

  34. pray, amen. All right, many of you, my guests,

  35. are familiar with the name Arthur Brooks. Maybe

  36. you've listened to his podcast, Office Hours.

  37. Maybe you've heard him as a guest on other podcasts.

  38. He seems familiar to many. Maybe you've read

  39. one of his books. He's written a lot of books.

  40. One of the books is titled Love Your Enemies,

  41. How Decent People Can Save America From the Culture

  42. of Contempt. I mean, isn't that just kind of

  43. an interesting idea that just loving each other

  44. and fighting against contempt? What an important...

  45. sort of subject in our time. Maybe you found

  46. him by just Googling, how can I be happier? And

  47. there's a reason why maybe you'd find him. He's

  48. a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School and Harvard

  49. Business School, but a lot of what his work has

  50. been focused on is happiness. Maybe you've heard

  51. about some of the studies that Harvard has done

  52. over the last decades about human happiness.

  53. But he studies it, like what is it? How do we

  54. get it? How is it acquired? Oh, so what can we

  55. do that we might live happier lives? And he has

  56. come up with what he calls his sort of four pillars

  57. of happiness. Here's what they are. Faith. And

  58. he doesn't necessarily mean the Christian faith,

  59. though he's a devout Catholic, but he is sort

  60. of talking about this guiding faith, this guiding

  61. understanding of where we are, where we're going,

  62. whose are we. What gives us meaning and perspective?

  63. Second one is family, sort of foundational bonds

  64. from which we have a sense of our belonging,

  65. sort of relational security. The third is friendship.

  66. by which he means sort of non -contractual social

  67. relationships outside of family. It's not kind

  68. of like, I'll just scratch your back, you scratch

  69. mine. You go to work and that's a contractual

  70. relationship. I put in these hours, I get paid

  71. this much, but relationships that exist beyond

  72. family and these contracts. The third one is

  73. work. And this has to do with actions that sort

  74. of exercise your talents. that provide an opportunity

  75. maybe for a degree of success. And often actually

  76. he says, most of the time it is tied to the idea

  77. that what you're doing serves something, serves

  78. others. And so he says, work in this kind of

  79. way doesn't have to be work that you're gaining

  80. money from though it often is. It can be volunteer

  81. work. It can be joining the English language

  82. classes this fall. Pastoral plug. that others

  83. might learn English, right? Or, you know, visiting

  84. and volunteering over at pacts and ministries,

  85. or I don't know, all kinds of number of things,

  86. serving at a food bank. But it's creating value

  87. in the world that you kind of move into the world.

  88. You exercise your gifts for the blessing of others

  89. and for the good of the world. And he's saying

  90. that these four things, the happiest people in

  91. the world seem to have these four pillars in

  92. their life. These four pillars. And I think it's

  93. just kind of good just to sit there for a moment

  94. because we tend to, of course, in our world,

  95. that primarily work brings happiness because

  96. work brings money. So you work, work, work. So

  97. you can buy, buy, buy. Maybe you know Chris Jansen's

  98. famous country song from 2015, Buy Me a Boat.

  99. I know this crew doesn't listen to country music

  100. much, but here's how part of it goes. I'm not

  101. going to sing it. Yeah, I know what they say.

  102. Money can't buy everything. Well, maybe so, but

  103. it can buy me a boat. Somebody knows it out there,

  104. right? Buy me a boat. And of course, the idea

  105. of maybe says the boat will make you happy, or

  106. maybe the boat will get you the girlfriend, or

  107. maybe the boat will facilitate time with friends.

  108. And maybe there's some degree of truth that it

  109. can facilitate some of those things. But interestingly,

  110. Another huge part of his sort of theory of happiness

  111. is that it has this bedrock idea of contentment

  112. too. And that contentment is on that first pillar

  113. of faith. Having a sense that there's meaning

  114. beyond us and there's actually something that

  115. you can put your trust in and have meaning in

  116. and a deep sense of belief and trust. So anyway,

  117. we're in Psalm 80. And if you were listening

  118. when I read it, you probably noticed that there

  119. was a chorus. a refrain. Not all the Psalms do

  120. this. Actually, not a lot of Psalms do this.

  121. A lot of Psalms are maybe more like the old hymns

  122. where they go from stanza to stanza to stanza.

  123. Kind of like the first song that we sang today.

  124. But then some have choruses like the last song

  125. that we sang where it goes back to the same idea

  126. to repeat it. And this is the refrain that we

  127. find in 3 and 7 and 19. Restore us, O God. Let

  128. your face shine that we may be saved. Restore

  129. us, O God. Let your face shine and we may be

  130. saved. And that word restore us in Hebrew actually

  131. can also be translated, turn us back. Turn us

  132. back and turn to us, which is to say we've been

  133. going some other direction for life, for meaning,

  134. for happiness. Turn us back, restore us, turn

  135. us back to yourself. the author Asaph or at least

  136. in sort of the lineage of Asaph is asking for

  137. the people to be turned back because the people

  138. have sought happiness, their wellbeing, their

  139. life outside of God. So this cry for restoration,

  140. what I want you to see today, this cry for God's

  141. face to shine upon them is because they've sought

  142. this happiness outside of God. And oddly, I was

  143. sitting with this passage and I thought, you

  144. know, this passage actually kind of can have

  145. these happiness pillars laid on it. So I kinda

  146. want you to see how this passage fits in with

  147. these happiness pillars. So I'm not gonna start

  148. with the first pillar. I'm actually gonna come

  149. back to that. But the first thing I want you

  150. to see is that what we have in this psalm is

  151. a destroyed family. If the second pillar is familial

  152. relations. What we actually find in this Psalm

  153. first is a destroyed family. So here's the first

  154. couple of verses. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel,

  155. you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who are

  156. enthroned upon the cherubim shine forth before

  157. Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up your

  158. might and come and save us. How does that have

  159. to do with the family? That's what you're asking.

  160. Let me tell you. So this Psalm was almost certainly

  161. written in the context of the Assyrian Empire

  162. coming in from the North, the Northeast into

  163. destroy and take over, take away the best and

  164. brightest of the 10 Northern tribes of Israel.

  165. Last week, if you were here, you may remember

  166. that we looked at Psalm... 79, we talked about

  167. the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction

  168. of the temple under the Babylonian exile. That

  169. happened, that destruction happened in 586. Well,

  170. the event of this Psalm was about 140 years earlier,

  171. 722, when the Assyrians came in and they destroyed

  172. the 10 Northern tribes. Well, two of the 10 Northern

  173. tribes, in fact, the two of the 10 largest of

  174. the Northern tribes are the tribes of Ephraim

  175. and Manasseh. In fact, sometimes the 10 northern

  176. tribes together can be referred to as Ephraim,

  177. because it was the main one. It was sort of just

  178. north of Judah and Benjamin. So it was sort of

  179. the neighboring tribe to the two southern tribes.

  180. But if you notice, it's not just mentioning these

  181. two dominant tribes of the 10 northern tribes

  182. of Israel. Right between those two tribes, kind

  183. of sandwiched between them is the tribe of Benjamin,

  184. which was not destroyed by the Assyrians. And

  185. it's actually, you know, Judah and Benjamin are

  186. the two Southern tribes of Israel. The 10 Northern

  187. ones are the ones that were taken over by the

  188. Assyrians. So why would Benjamin be mentioned

  189. in the context of this Assyrian conflict sandwiched

  190. right between Ephraim and Manasseh? What it's

  191. saying is that our familial relations are destroyed.

  192. We're being torn apart. They're crying out to

  193. God, give ear, oh shepherd of Israel, you who

  194. lead us, keep your family together. And the family

  195. was destroyed because they did not look to the

  196. shepherd. They didn't look to the leader. They

  197. didn't look to their father in heaven. If you've

  198. been around the Bible a little while, you might

  199. know that shepherding is a... is a metaphor that's

  200. kind of common in the scriptures. And that's

  201. no surprise, of course, they led these pastoral

  202. lives tending to sheep and all that. And they

  203. knew the dynamic of a sheep needing to live under

  204. the care of another. They also knew the dynamic

  205. as Jesus picks up on in John chapter 15 that

    John 15 chapter mention

  206. we heard that sometimes the sheep want to listen

  207. to another's voice. They hear other shepherd's

  208. voice and they say, maybe I should go over there.

  209. They hear other voices of sort of parental figures

  210. who are to care for them. They say, let's go

  211. there. And that's exactly what they were doing

  212. time and time again. They were saying, you know,

  213. I don't want to hear, I don't want to hear the

  214. voice of the good shepherd, our father who has

  215. led us as his people. I want to listen to other

  216. shepherds or I just want to be my own shepherd.

  217. That's what's been, that's what's going on. And

  218. so they reject the father and the family is destroyed.

  219. Which is to say in some ways that they sought

  220. their happiness, but they sought it outside this

  221. foundational bond. This bond that sort of leads

  222. them out into life with others. They found it

  223. in a foundational bond, which was not God. And

  224. so the happiness which they sought actually destroyed

  225. one of the things that actually would build their

  226. happiness. Their families destroyed. Their family

  227. ties are broken up. breaking up the tribes of

  228. Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh and all their

  229. relationships. But, so interestingly, I think

  230. if you look at the second stanza there, we actually

  231. find another one of these pillars of happiness

  232. that's taken down. And I want to call this destitute

  233. friends, okay, the second, so destroyed families

  234. and destitute friends. Verse four. Oh Lord, God

  235. of hosts, how long will you be angry with your

  236. people's prayers? You fed them with the bread

  237. of tears and given them tears to drink in full

  238. measure. You make us an object of contention

  239. for our neighbors and our enemies laugh among

  240. themselves." Now, you might think that's odd

  241. that I would title this under friendships because

  242. the last thing was enemies. Enemies were mentioned.

  243. But right before that, talking about neighbors.

  244. Not family, right? Not those foundational bonds,

  245. but necessary relationships for our wellbeing

  246. that exists outside of our families, like our

  247. neighbors, these relationships that we have outside

  248. of these immediate family ties. And here it's

  249. saying that they're torn. They've actually become

  250. relationships of contention. And why is that?

  251. One of the reasons is because it says God hasn't

  252. heard their prayers. He's angry with their prayers,

  253. right? Oh, Lord God of hosts, how long will you

  254. be angry with your people's prayers? Does that

  255. seem strange to you that God would be angry with

  256. the prayers of his people? I think that's kind

  257. of maybe an odd passage, odd thing to say. Well,

  258. here's what had happened, right? Again, this

  259. is geared towards the Northern tribes, the tribes

  260. that are sort of set as a whole to be Ephraim

  261. and Manasseh. They had set up places of prayer.

  262. They've set up places of prayer all over throughout

  263. their tribes, but most of those places of prayer

  264. were not places of prayer that God had told them

  265. to set up, either to pray to Him or they were

  266. used actually to pray to other gods. The exile

  267. itself, this Assyrian exile happens because they've

  268. decided to worship other gods to pray to other

  269. idols. They've made other gods and they've offered

  270. up these prayers, but not to Yahweh, not to the

  271. true God. And also what they've done, the other

  272. big reason why the exile happens is because they've

  273. made these alliances with these neighboring countries

  274. when God told them not to. So here's an interesting

  275. thing that's happening. The very thing that they're

  276. going for, which is friendship with their neighbors,

  277. is destroyed because they made their friends

  278. the main thing. So they're setting up these places

  279. of prayer that are the gods of their neighbors.

  280. They're making alliances with their neighbors

  281. in such a way that denies their alliance with

  282. God, which is to say they're making their friends

  283. the main thing. Their neighbors are becoming

  284. the main thing. And what it ultimately ends in

  285. is destroying the friendship that they have with

  286. those about them. Think about this. Have you

  287. ever seen this happen where someone doesn't seem

  288. to exactly have an identity of their own, but

  289. their identity exists almost completely in how

  290. they associate with another. And so they almost

  291. seem to mimic another's speech. They don't have

  292. music that they love. They just love the music

  293. of the other. They don't have jokes that they

  294. make up. They just make up the jokes of another.

  295. It's almost as though they're just saying, I

  296. just wanna be you. And it actually destroys the

  297. relationship because you don't offer yourself.

  298. You just sort of mirror the other person completely.

  299. And the friendship doesn't bring life and fit.

  300. In fact, the friendship often withers and fades

  301. because that kind of relationship that's bending

  302. over backwards just to be whatever the other

  303. person wants kills the relationship. Those friendships

  304. don't work. And this is What's happening, these

  305. 10 Northern tribes are saying, we just wanna

  306. be liked by all these people. And so we're gonna

  307. put up these places of prayer. We're gonna pray

  308. to their gods. We're gonna make alliances. And

  309. what happens is that those friendships wither

  310. and fade and actually those very relationships

  311. come in and destroy them. So in some ways, of

  312. course, God wouldn't listen to their prayers.

  313. They weren't offered to Him. Their prayers were

  314. for the sake of them. were for the sake of finding

  315. their identity in their friendships. Again, this

  316. song to another of its pillars of happiness that

  317. was taken away from them. So they lose their

  318. familiar relationships, they lose their friendships,

  319. and they also lose their work. So we have destroyed

  320. families, depleted friendships, and then, sorry,

  321. What did I say? Not depleted. I have depleted

  322. work here. What did I say? Destitute. Thank you,

  323. destitute friends. And depleted work, which is

  324. to say they're a fruitless vine. That's the last

  325. sort of main paragraph. And again, this is a

  326. metaphor that you find in the Bible a lot, the

  327. metaphor of a vine. And this makes sense, right?

  328. Just like the shepherd thing makes sense. You're

  329. like, oh, there's sheep, shepherd, and there's

  330. like vines. And so they use these metaphors to

  331. talk about themselves. Vines were to bear fruit.

  332. As they were tended to, they were to bear fruit.

  333. As they were pruned and trained along trellises,

  334. they were to bear fruit. And if you didn't bear

  335. fruit, what would you do? You'd say, ah, well,

  336. this is a defunct vine. We need to get rid of

  337. it and plant something else here so that it will

  338. bear fruit. And a lot of times Israel as a nation

  339. was actually talked about as the vine of God.

  340. And we find this in a few different places. In

  341. Genesis 49, you can read of Joseph being called

  342. a fruitful vine near a spring whose branches

  343. climb over a wall. It's growing because it's

  344. near the stream of God. Isaiah, we can read this,

  345. my loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside,

  346. which is say Israel was to be planted by the

  347. waters of God and in a fertile hillside by the

  348. Lord. Near the end of Hosea, we can read, he

  349. will blossom like a vine, referring to Israel,

  350. the nation. And his fame will be like the wine

  351. of Lebanon, which is to say that not just as

  352. he's to be planted by the stream and on a fertile

  353. soil, but he's to bear, right? This work is to

  354. actually be sort of the work that Arthur Brooks

  355. talks about. Something that's offered into the

  356. world, the blessing of the world. So come to

  357. this stanza. I'm not gonna read all of it for

  358. us, but starting in verse eight. You brought

  359. a vineyard out of Egypt. You drove out the nations

  360. and planted it. You cleared the ground for it.

  361. It took deep root and filled the land. The mountains

  362. were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars

  363. with its branches. It sent out its branches to

  364. the sea and its shoots to the river. Why then

  365. have you broken down its walls so that all who

  366. pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar

  367. from the forest ravages it and all that move

  368. in the field feed on it." Now again, maybe kind

  369. of like prayers. I think we get to this and we

  370. do go, wait, why would God do this? Why would

  371. God break down the walls and allow the boar from

  372. the forest to ravage the plant? Well, this is

  373. answered for us in John chapter 15 that we heard,

    John 15 chapter mention

  374. every branch in me that does not bear fruit,

  375. he takes away. And every branch that does bear

  376. fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

  377. Artie, you're clean because of the word that

  378. I've spoken to you, abide in me and I in you,

  379. as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless

  380. it abides in the vine, neither can you unless

  381. you abide in me. So why are the walls broken

  382. down? Why are the boars from the forest coming

  383. in ravaging the plants? Because they're not bearing

  384. the fruit of abiding in the vine. And Lord says

  385. enough. Lord says enough. So here's what's happening.

  386. Here's what I'm suggesting in this. What this

  387. psalm is doing is saying that you've sought to

  388. find this happiness in these things, but you've

  389. sought to find them outside of me. You know,

  390. in your family relations and your friends and

  391. in your work, these are to be actually places

  392. that you're to grow and to bear fruit and to

  393. have life, but all along they're doing it outside

  394. of the Lord. destroyed family, destitute friendships,

  395. depleted work. So Arthur Brooks has more to say,

  396. of course. He's written all these books. But

  397. he's an economist, and so a lot of times he uses

  398. economic language. And he says that oftentimes

  399. with these four pillars we over -index, or what

  400. we do is we don't diversify. So we put all of

  401. our chips in one pillar. So we're like, oh, happiness

  402. can happen if I just work, work, work, work,

  403. work, or if I just give all of my life to my

  404. family. So Israel was putting their happiness

  405. basket. At this time, a lot of what they were

  406. doing is they were putting their happiness basket

  407. into their friendship relationships, into their

  408. relationships with their neighbors. Like I said,

  409. they put up these high places and they worship

  410. the gods of their neighbors and they made all

  411. these alliances and they said, we're just going

  412. to do whatever we can because we need friends.

  413. That of course happens to us. We'll give up on

  414. a lot of other things if we could just make a

  415. friend. We kind of make that the God. The thing

  416. that will bring us happiness. But for the most

  417. part in our world, we kind of put a lot of our

  418. chips. You know, we kind of over index into our

  419. work We find our meaning in what we can accomplish

  420. Maybe the amount of money we can make how many

  421. people we can serve man that can make us feel

  422. good And of course we need to hear all work and

  423. no play makes Jack a dull boy But also think

  424. about this I think actually within the within

  425. Christian settings a lot of times what we can

  426. do is we can sort of overplay the family card

  427. Like family becomes the main thing, right? What

  428. we want to do is we just want to keep everybody

  429. really, really close. So weekends are meant almost

  430. exclusively for family things. And actually friendships

  431. sometimes can diminish. One of the other pillars

  432. can be swallowed up by another. You can think

  433. about dating and about romance. about how we

  434. put so many chips into that. We put all of our

  435. energy into that that actually work and these

  436. other things diminish. And then when you get

  437. the date, you're like, what do I talk about?

  438. Because this is the main thing I've been thinking

  439. about all the time, which is just say we over

  440. index, we don't diversify. And Brooke says, you've

  441. got to have all four of these pillars. So what's

  442. missing for Israel? Well, what's missing for

  443. Israel? I wonder, maybe it's missing for you.

  444. It's worth asking the question. What's missing

  445. for Israel's faith? Trust. Belief. Commitments

  446. to the Lord. I mean, you think about it, it's

  447. not that Israel didn't want family. They did.

  448. They even wanted sort of a father to look down

  449. upon them and help give them direction like a

  450. shepherd. But they didn't want the great shepherd.

  451. They wanted other voices to care for them and

  452. to tend to them. And it's not that they didn't

  453. want friendship. Obviously they did. They just

  454. made their friends the determining thing of their

  455. life. And so their prayers went up to the gods

  456. of their neighbors. And their friendships became

  457. contentious relationships because they held more

  458. than they were intended to hold. And it's not

  459. that they didn't want to produce or to work.

  460. to bring something into the world. I mean, we

  461. are all made for that, but we're made to do that

  462. in connection with the divine. And so here's

  463. the refrain that we hear, right? In verse three,

  464. verse seven, down in verse 19. Restore us, O

  465. God, let your face shine that we may be saved.

  466. But just say, turn us back. Because we're running

  467. after these other things to give us our meaning

  468. and our happiness and they are good things, but

  469. they are not good things in and of themselves.

  470. If we put all of our chips in these baskets,

  471. they cannot hold it. They're good. They're to

  472. be sought after, but not in and of themselves.

  473. Restore us to your self. Let your face shine

  474. on us that we may be saved. And if you're thinking

  475. that sounds familiar. Well, you should be thinking

  476. that. Of course, that phrase comes from the great

  477. Aaronic blessing that the priests would speak

  478. over the people morning and evening as we so

  479. often do in Christian services at the end of

  480. our services with the great benediction, Lord

  481. bless you and keep you and make his face to shine

  482. upon you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon

  483. you, give you his peace. What he's saying is

  484. give us faith. Renew us again. Help us to turn

  485. from these other things that we're kind of banking

  486. on to give us life and meaning and happiness

  487. and joy and all the rest and turn us to you.

  488. They're asking for faith that the Lord be gracious

  489. to them. Faith that they will not find their

  490. meaning in what they do or don't do. Faith that

  491. God is the source of their peace. Not these other

  492. things of family and friends and work. So one

  493. of the stories, one of the stories behind this

  494. time period, and maybe actually that was happening

  495. right in the right at the same time of writing

  496. this Psalm, we're not totally sure. But one of

  497. the stories that happens around the time of the

  498. of the Assyrian exile, and actually just sort

  499. of just after the Assyrian exile, we read for

  500. part of part of we had part of it we had read

  501. for us from Second Chronicles 30. that Chuck

  502. read for us. And it's Hezekiah. Hezekiah is this

  503. good king. He's a righteous king. He's the king

  504. of the Southern tribes. He actually lived during

  505. the time of the Assyrian destruction of the 10

  506. Northern tribes in their exile. And so he has

  507. this spiritual renewal and they desire us to

  508. follow the Lord. And what he does is he says,

  509. okay, everybody has got to come and worship the

  510. Lord in Jerusalem. And we need the priests I

  511. don't know if you caught that actually, it says

  512. they had to celebrate the Passover in this month

  513. because there weren't enough priests yet who

  514. had consecrated themselves. They needed the priests

  515. there because they were to lead the people in

  516. worship and lead them in the Passover sacrifices

  517. and meals, but they were also the ones who were

  518. supposed to speak God's blessing, His benediction

  519. that God's face would shine upon them to them.

  520. And so, What Hezekiah does is he established

  521. this and he says, hey, we're going to have this

  522. great feast in Jerusalem. We're going to celebrate

  523. the Passover and the priests are going to speak

  524. the blessing over God's people. And he says,

  525. send out word to everybody. And if you noticed

  526. actually the passage there in the second Chronicles

  527. 30, it actually mentions Ephraim and Manasseh,

  528. but this is after the, after the Assyrian exile.

  529. So he's saying, hey, you've seen You've seen

  530. that this sort of life of looking for your happiness

  531. and your family and your friendships and your

  532. work won't bring it to you outside of God. And

  533. so come, come and worship Him and receive His

  534. declaration that His face is shining upon you.

  535. He invites all these people to Jerusalem, all

  536. these 10 tribes of the North and the two tribes

  537. of the South. And He's trying to unite them again

  538. around this idea that outside of God, you cannot

  539. have the happiness and the joy for which you

  540. deeply long. But what did they do? I don't know

  541. if, you know, this is like one of those weird

  542. passages that are not terribly well known. So

  543. I'm sure you probably heard Chuck read it and

  544. you're like, whoop, whoop, you know, that kind

  545. of thing. Well, let me read verse 10 again for

  546. you. Okay. So the couriers, the guys that are

  547. inviting everybody to Jerusalem, the couriers,

  548. the people that are bringing these letters, invitations

  549. out, went from city to city through the country

  550. of Ephraim and Manasseh. And as far as Zebulon,

  551. up in the Northern part, but they laughed them

  552. to scorn and mocked them. They laughed them to

  553. scorn and mocked them. They thought, no, no,

  554. no, no. No, we actually think that happiness

  555. can just be found in our family relationships

  556. that we have or in the work that we produce or

  557. in the friendships that we have. I don't have

  558. any interest in that whole God thing. And of

  559. course, I think part of the question for us is

  560. what would you have done? Actually, what are

  561. you doing? How are you indexing, right? How are

  562. you diversifying? Where does faith fit for you?

  563. So if we turn to the last section there in this

  564. Psalm, Psalm 80, verse 14 down, it says, turn

    Psalms 80:14

  565. again, O God of hosts, look down from heaven

  566. and see, have regard for this vine, this rock

  567. that your right hand planted, and for the son

  568. whom you made strong for yourself. They've burned

  569. it with fire, they've cut it down, May they perish

  570. at the rebuke of your face, but let your hand

  571. be on the man of your right hand, the son of

  572. man whom you have made strong for yourself. And

  573. we shall turn back from you, give us life and

  574. we'll call upon your name." And of course, as

  575. Christians, we read that and we say, this is

  576. talking about our Lord Jesus. It's looking forward

  577. to the fact that God will restore His wayward

  578. people. He's going to have grace. He's going

  579. to make quite literally His face to shine upon

  580. them. the image of the invisible God for the

  581. world to see. And think about it, when we look

  582. to Jesus, when we look to the Gospels, specifically

  583. the Gospel of John, almost every single thing

  584. that we have mentioned to us here in this text

  585. is found in Christ. So in John chapter six, Jesus

  586. says that He and the Father are one and all whom

  587. the Father has given Him, He will not cast out.

  588. There's this familial reality. You're in a part

  589. of a new family with Jesus. He offers a lasting

  590. family, the new foundational relationship from

  591. which you can go out into the world. John chapter

    John 15 chapter mention

  592. 15, Jesus says, no longer do I call you servants.

  593. The servant does not know what his master's doing,

  594. but I've called you friends, which is to say

  595. a servant is a contractual kind of thing in a

  596. way. He's saying that's not our relationship.

  597. We're friends. Jesus is offering that pillar

  598. of friendship to us. John chapter 15, he says,

    John 15 chapter mention

  599. I am the vine, you're the branches, whoever abides

  600. in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much

  601. fruit. Offering something out into the world

  602. as you abide in Christ. But all of this, all

  603. of this in the gospels, and I think what this

  604. text here in Psalm 80 is getting at. This thing

  605. for which we desire, right? Family bonds, which

  606. unite us in a way that help us to go out into

  607. the world and in life. Non -contractual friendships.

  608. Work that offers something out into the world

  609. that is productive and a blessing. What I think

  610. this Psalm is telling us, and I think what we

  611. see as we put these things together in these

  612. texts in John, is those only will take root.

  613. Those only will actually give meaning if you

  614. have that first pillar in place first, faith.

  615. You cannot bear fruit apart from the Lord. Your

  616. family and your friendships will be places of

  617. control and of domineering. with outside of the

  618. Lord. It's true, seek first his kingdom, his

  619. righteousness. All the other things will be added

  620. unto you. Look to Christ, the shining face of

  621. God, who offers you a new family, a greater friendship.

  622. greater fruit bearing life in the world. Apart

  623. from Him, we can do nothing. And yet with Him

  624. is lasting happiness and joy. Let me pray for

  625. us. Lord, think of these stories and this Psalm,

  626. the occasion of the writing of this Psalm, and

  627. it's distant from us. And they're stories that

  628. are not terribly well known, stories of Hezekiah.

  629. the Assyrians, and we're talking about stuff

  630. that is long ago, and yet how much it really

  631. does speak to our dynamics, God. I pray that

  632. you would shine your blessing upon us, that we

  633. have people that know joy, a deep happiness,

  634. and that we would that we'd be fruitful in our

  635. work, that we desire to live productive, meaningful

  636. lives, serving others, producing in your world.

  637. God, that you'd give us friendships. Maybe new

  638. friendships would be birthed today at our picnic.

  639. That would truly increase our happiness, our

  640. sense of wellbeing and life. God, that you would

  641. bless our families. God, but I pray that each

  642. of these things that we desire, good desires,

  643. we would place them upon the foundation of faith,

  644. of belief, of trust in you, of looking to you,

  645. looking to your face, looking to the work of

  646. Christ for us. God, that we would be those who

  647. seek first the kingdom. and your righteousness,

  648. and then know that the other things would be

  649. added. That we wouldn't seek those things as

  650. the kingdom, but the fruit of the kingdom. God,

  651. please do this. What a passage that seems so

  652. old, is so applicable to us. Apply it to our

  653. lives, we pray, by the work of your Holy Spirit.

  654. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening

  655. to Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this

  656. sermon has encouraged you to worship God and

  657. to celebrate the gospel of Jesus. Please consider

  658. subscribing to this podcast and joining us in

  659. person each Sunday at 10 a .m. You can find us

  660. online at secondcitychurch .org and on Instagram,

  661. Facebook, and YouTube. Thanks again for listening.

  662. God bless.